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Ecclesiastes 7

Wisdom and Foolishness Contrasted

¹A good name is better than good oil, And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.

²It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every person, And the living takes it to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.

⁴The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.

⁵It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise person Than for one to listen to the song of fools.

⁶For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot, So is the laughter of the fool; And this too is futility.

⁷For oppression makes a wise person look foolish, And a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than arrogance of spirit.

⁹Do not be eager in your spirit to be angry, For anger resides in the heart of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

¹¹Wisdom along with an inheritance is good, And an advantage to those who see the sun.

¹²For wisdom is protection just as money is protection, But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom keeps its possessors alive.

¹³Consider the work of God, For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

¹⁴On the day of prosperity be happy, But on the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other So that a person will not discover anything that will come after him.

¹⁵I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous person who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked person who prolongs his life in his wickedness. ¹⁶Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? ¹⁷Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be foolish. Why should you die before your time? ¹⁸It is good that you grasp one thing while not letting go of the other; for one who fears God comes out with both of them.

¹⁹Wisdom strengthens a wise person more than ten rulers who are in a city. ²⁰Indeed, there is not a righteous person on earth who always does good and does not ever sin. ²¹Also, do not take seriously all the words which are spoken, so that you do not hear your servant cursing you, ²²for you know that even you have cursed others many times as well.

²³I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” but wisdom was far from me. ²⁴What has been is remote and very mysterious. Who can discover it? ²⁵I directed my mind to know and to investigate, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of foolishness and the foolishness of insanity. ²⁶And I discovered as more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

²⁷“Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “by adding one thing to another to find an explanation, ²⁸which I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these. ²⁹Behold, I have found only this, that God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

Ecclesiastes 7 (NASB)

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Ecclesiastes

Chapter 7

7 of 12